FBI Marks 20 Years of Training at 'Body Farm'

FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation

21 Mar 201904:18

EducationalLearning

32 Likes 10 Comments

TLDRThe video script details a Human Remains Recovery Course at the Anthropology Research Facility, where FBI ERTs are trained to identify, excavate, and document evidence from graves. They learn to distinguish between bone and rock, systematically excavate, and sift soil to find crucial evidence such as teeth, bullets, and clothing. The process includes mapping and photographing remains, ensuring no evidence is missed, and going beyond the grave floor to find hidden items. The training is powered by body donations to science, emphasizing the donors' contribution to forensic science and FBI training.

Takeaways

🚨 The Human Remains Recovery Course is designed to train FBI ERTs in recognizing, excavating, and documenting evidence from graves.
🔍 ERTs learn to differentiate between bone and rock, which is crucial for not missing important evidence that resembles rock.
🌲 The course helps ERTs understand the decomposition process of bodies in graves, improving their approach to grave-related crime scenes.
🧭 ERTs are trained to use probes to find graves by feeling the differences between undisturbed and disturbed soil.
📏 A systematic grid layout is initiated once the potential grave area is identified to ensure a structured excavation process.
🏗️ Excavation involves removing soil in thin layers, known as levels, to systematically document any encountered evidence.
🔎 All excavated dirt is sifted to capture small pieces of evidence such as teeth, bullets, or clothing that may have been missed during troweling.
🦴 The bones and other evidence within the grave are completely exposed and elevated to ensure all evidence is collected and associated correctly.
📸 Each piece of evidence is meticulously mapped, photographed, inventoried, and removed to maintain a clear record of its spatial relationship to the body.
🔨 After the initial excavation, agents scrape the bottom of the grave and dig further down to ensure no evidence is left behind, especially bullets that may have been pushed into the floor.
🙌 The techniques taught at the ARF are intended to be applied to every crime scene involving buried remains, emphasizing the importance of understanding the complexities involved.
❤️ The program is supported by individuals who donate their bodies to science, contributing to forensic science advancement and FBI training, of which they are proud.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the Human Remains Recovery Course?
-The Human Remains Recovery Course trains FBI ERTs (Evidence Response Teams) to recognize, excavate, and document graves and surface remains, ensuring they collect and document all evidence properly.
Why are these crime scenes referred to as 'challenge crime scenes'?
-They are called 'challenge crime scenes' because not all evidence may be immediately recognizable as bone; some may appear as rock, requiring a deep understanding of bone characteristics to identify correctly.
How do ERTs initially locate graves?
-ERTs first use probes to feel the differences between undisturbed and disturbed soil, which helps them locate graves.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Introduction to the Human Remains Recovery Course

This course trains FBI Evidence Response Teams (ERTs) to recognize and excavate graves and surface remains. It emphasizes the importance of documenting all evidence meticulously, teaching ERTs to differentiate between bones and similar-looking objects like rocks. This training ensures they do not miss crucial evidence in real crime scenes.

🕵️ Probing for Graves

ERTs learn to use probes to locate graves by feeling for differences between undisturbed and disturbed soil. They are trained to identify subtle soil variations to pinpoint grave sites accurately.

📏 Gridding and Excavation

After locating a potential grave, ERTs lay out a grid and start excavating systematically. They remove soil in thin layers, called levels, to document any evidence found without disturbing the overall context. This careful process helps reconstruct the story behind the grave and the events leading to the burial.

🔎 Sifting for Evidence

Every bit of excavated soil is sifted to find small but significant pieces of evidence, such as teeth, bullets, or clothing. This ensures that nothing important is overlooked during the excavation.

💀 Exposing and Documenting the Grave

ERTs expose the grave fully, carefully digging around bones to elevate them above the grave floor. They map and document every piece of evidence, ensuring that its spatial relationship to the body is recorded. This meticulous mapping helps understand how the body and evidence were placed.

🧹 Scraping the Grave Floor

Once the remains and surface evidence are removed, ERTs scrape the grave floor and dig deeper to find any buried evidence. This final step ensures that all potential evidence, including deeply embedded items like bullets, is recovered.

📚 Practical Training for Complex Crime Scenes

The techniques taught at the Anthropology Research Facility (ARF) prepare ERTs to handle complex crime scenes involving buried remains. The hands-on experience is crucial for understanding the intricacies of grave excavation.

🙏 Gratitude to Body Donors

The success of the ARF's training programs relies on individuals who donate their bodies to science. These donors contribute significantly to forensic science and law enforcement training, particularly benefiting the FBI. Their generosity enhances the effectiveness of crime scene investigations.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Anthropology Research Facility (ARF)

The Anthropology Research Facility is a specialized training site where the FBI's Evidence Response Teams (ERTs) learn advanced forensic techniques. In the context of the video, ARF is crucial for teaching ERTs how to handle human remains recovery, emphasizing the importance of systematic and careful excavation to ensure all evidence is collected and documented.

💡Evidence Response Teams (ERTs)

Evidence Response Teams are specialized units within the FBI that are trained to respond to and process crime scenes. The script highlights their training at the ARF to recognize and excavate graves, which is a critical skill for dealing with cases involving buried human remains.

💡Human Remains Recovery Course

This course is a specific training program at the ARF designed to teach ERTs the intricacies of identifying, excavating, and documenting human remains from graves. The course is essential for ensuring that ERTs can effectively collect and preserve evidence in challenging crime scenes.

💡Challenge Crime Scenes

The term 'challenge crime scenes' refers to crime scenes that are particularly difficult to analyze due to the nature of the evidence, such as in cases where human remains are involved. The script mentions that these scenes are challenging because evidence may not be immediately recognizable as bone and could be mistaken for rock.

💡Excavation

Excavation, in the context of the video, is the process of carefully removing soil layer by layer to uncover and recover human remains and associated evidence from a grave. The script describes a systematic approach to excavation to ensure no evidence is missed or damaged.

💡Soil Disturbance

Soil disturbance refers to the difference between undisturbed and disturbed soil, which ERTs are trained to identify using probes. This skill is crucial for locating graves, as the script explains, by feeling the differences that indicate a grave's presence.

💡Grid Layout

A grid layout is a method used by ERTs to systematically mark off an area for excavation. The script describes how ERTs lay out a grid once they have defined the margins of a potential grave, which aids in the organized and methodical collection of evidence.

💡Levels

In the script, 'levels' refer to the thin layers of soil that ERTs remove during the excavation process. The term is used to describe the systematic approach of taking down soil layer by layer to ensure that evidence is not missed or damaged.

💡Sifting

Sifting is the process of passing every piece of excavated dirt through a sieve to capture small pieces of evidence that may have been overlooked during the initial excavation. The script emphasizes the importance of sifting to find crucial evidence such as teeth, bullets, or pieces of clothing.

💡Evidence Mapping

Evidence mapping is the process of documenting the spatial relationship of all evidence found in a grave, including bones, clothing, and other physical evidence. The script explains that ERTs map every piece of evidence to understand the story of what happened and how the grave was constructed.

💡Body Donation

Body donation is the act of giving one's body to science after death, which in the context of the video, is done to support forensic science and training. The script highlights the importance of these donations to the training of ERTs at the ARF and the pride that donors feel in contributing to law enforcement training.

Highlights

The Human Remains Recovery Course trains FBI ERTs to recognize, excavate, and document evidence from graves.

Challenge crime scenes require ERTs to differentiate between bone and rock-like evidence.

The course helps ERTs learn to approach graves systematically to avoid missing crucial evidence.

ERTs are trained to use probes to find graves by feeling the difference between disturbed and undisturbed soil.

A grid is laid out in suspected grave areas to systematically excavate the site.

Excavation involves removing soil layer by layer, called levels, to document any encountered evidence.

All excavated dirt is sifted to find small evidence like teeth, bullets, or clothing fragments.

The entire grave is exposed to ensure all evidence is collected and associated with its spatial context.

Each piece of evidence, including bones and clothing, is mapped and documented.

After remains are removed, the grave bottom is scraped and excavated an additional 20 cm to find any pushed-down evidence.

The ARF teaches techniques for ERTs to approach every crime scene with buried remains.

Understanding the complexities of grave excavation is crucial for effective forensic investigation.

The heart of the training is the individuals who donate their bodies to science for forensic research and training.

Donors are proud to contribute to forensic science and FBI training through body donation.

Donors' contributions directly benefit law enforcement and the FBI in their forensic capabilities.

Transcripts

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